One North Kitchen & Bar Opens East Lansing Location

Patrons visiting One North Kitchen & Bar at 1310 Abbot Road for the first time, hoping to experience something similar to former occupant Reno’s East will likely be both surprised and at ease by the familiar spot. 

The space underwent a modest remodel and has a revamped menu, but will continue to host a weekly radio show featuring Michigan State University sports coaches.

ELi spoke with Scott Berman, owner of One North and president of Dining Ventures, Inc., about the newly opened restaurant.

“I live probably two miles from here,” he said. “I was familiar with Jesse [Stipcak, the previous owner] and we bought the one [Reno’s] on the west side. We’ve always had a fascination with this property in this location. This particular portion of East Lansing is kind of underserved from full-service family dining. There aren’t a lot of great places between Eastwood or Grand River or Frandor.”

Berman said that he also wanted to expand the One North brand, which already has restaurants in Lansing and Jackson. His hospitality business, Dining Ventures, Inc., owns five restaurants and employs more than 300 people.

“We were looking for something for the east side,” he said, “and certainly, the affiliation and the opportunity to get involved with the coaches shows and be more ingrained with Michigan State University was another attractive feature of it.”

He said One North has enjoyed some carryover with the loyal customers that Reno’s East attracted, but he’s targeting a broader clientele.

“I think we’re interested in people who are foodies, who typically like sports and social environments, but put a high value on maybe not having to be in a college bar atmosphere,” he said. “We’re much less of a ‘bar with food’ and much more of a ‘great homemade restaurant with a good bar’ and sports to watch.”

When asked about his favorite dishes, he smirks, admitting that he gets asked that a lot but always gives horrible answers because his preference changes so frequently.

“We have, what I call, a veto proof menu,” he said. “It’s very eclectic. All of our food is from scratch, but we have Asian dishes, we have Mexican dishes; it’s really up to the person what they like best.

“I will say that, unsolicited, jambalaya was an item that got voted very highly in the Pulse magazine’s rating for signature dish. We don’t consider it a signature dish, but apparently a lot of people do and that’s flattering. My wife and I love our bourbon salmon. But we had a lot of loyal customers who just love our, you know, love our burgers or sirloin steak.”

The building itself didn’t change much, Berman said. A storage room was added to make space for catering and special events and 200 square feet of additional cooler space was added because the restaurant makes almost everything from scratch.

“We reconfigured the floor plan quite a bit and there’s almost nothing we didn’t remodel,” he said. “So all new electrical, all new plumbing, all new flooring, put up several new walls, all new ceilings, all new roofing.”

The space for the MSU coaches’ shows also got a facelift, with a remodeled room, and new cameras and televisions.

A bonus of the remodeled space, he said, is the ability to have multiple activities going on, including supporting private groups and events.

“We had around 130 people in for the Robyn Fralick [MSU Women’s Basketball coach] show,” Berman said. “It was really exciting and it was very successful, and yet, there were two other parts of our restaurant, the dining room and our outside porch, and many people didn’t even know we had an event going on.”

Even with the scratch-made menu items and new building amenities, Berman is most proud of the team he’s built to run the restaurant.

“We expect and hope our customers see an overwhelming commitment to hospitality and friendliness, ” he said. “Those are some of our core principles. We not only want to be the first choice for guests, but we want to be the first choice for people who want careers in hospitality in the Lansing area. We fortunately have attracted highly talented people and have low turnover rates and we think that enables us to give guests a unique experience.

“We’re fortunate enough to have a great, great team that shares our desire to serve the guests.”